Bannerbear

How Jon Yongfook Bootstrapped Bannerbear To $50K MRR in 3 Years

Bannerbear is an API and integration tool that enables users to automatically generate social media visuals, e-commerce banners, and more. Users can create no-code automated workflows to handle repetitive marketing tasks in the background.

Founded By

Jon Yongfook Cockle

Monthly Revenue

$50K

Starting Costs

$500

Days To Build

210

Score

Founders

Profitable

Yes

Days To Build

210

Year Started

2019

Customer

B2B & B2C

Founded By
Jon Yongfook Cockle: Monthly Revenue
$50K: Starting Costs
$500: Days To Build
210

Score
95: Founders
1: Profitable
Yes: Days To Build
210

Year Started
2019: Customer
B2B & B2C

Who is Jon Yongfook Cockle?

Jon Yongfook is the founder of Bannerbear, an API that helps users automatically generate social media visuals. Jon is a seasoned entrepreneur and technological innovator with over a decade of experience working for multinationals and innovative startups.

Before starting his entrepreneurial journey, Jon worked at Aviva as the head of Digital Product & Design. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree majoring in Accounting and Finance with Computing from the University of Kent.

What problem does Bannerbear solve?

Designing and creating marketing materials, such as social media visuals and eCommerce banners, can be time-consuming. Bannerbear aims to streamline and automate these tasks to save time and increase efficiency for marketing teams.

How did Jon come up with the idea for Bannerbear?

Jon worked as a designer and programmer for over two decades. In his role as a designer, he focused on developing various products and banners for marketing teams. The idea for Bannerbear stemmed from his desire to streamline the time-consuming design process.

How did Jon build the initial version of Bannerbear?

Jon, an experienced developer specializing in Ruby on Rails, started by creating Previewmojo, a basic tool for generating open graph images using a limited set of templates.

Although there was initial interest from Producthunt, there wasn't enough demand for open graph images, so the project had limited success.

Realizing the limitations and the narrow appeal of the product, Jon turned to the Shopify ecosystem and developed an app. However, it didn't meet expectations because it required users to add code to their sites.

In response to feedback and recognizing the broader potential of the technology, Jon pivoted the business towards a more flexible and scalable solution. In March 2020, he relaunched the product as Bannerbear, focusing on its API capabilities.

This pivot allowed the business to serve a wider range of needs and move higher up the value chain, resulting in more meaningful customer interactions and a clearer demonstration of value. This was made possible by a strong foundation in Ruby on Rails and a strategic shift towards API and integration services.

What was the growth strategy for Bannerbear and how did they scale?

Jon dedicated 50% of his resources to marketing. Here is an overview of his marketing strategy that drove customers to his business, inspiring growth:

Tweeting about the things that interested his target audience
Joining and engaging communities where potential customers might participate
Blogging
Sending email newsletters often
In addition, Jon focused on offering quality results so existing users can recommend his products.

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